Abstract
Objective: Description of clinical features and assess the caregiver burden of patients with Parkinson’s disease dementia.
Methods: Cross-sectional study on 50 patients diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease (PD) with dementia at the National Geriatric Hospital. PD patients were evaluated using Mini-Mental State Evaluation (MMSE), Barthel index, Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39), and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI); Caregivers were evaluated using Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS21), and Parkinson’s Disease Carer Questionnaire (PDQ-carer). The study was statistically processed with SPSS 16.0 software.
Results: 50 Parkinson’s patients with dementia and their main caregivers. The mean age of the study group was 74,48 ± 8,195, with a male/female ratio of ≈ 1/1,6. The mean duration of illness was 9,26 ± 4,24. The mean MMSE score of patients with dementia was 19,92 ± 4,45. There are 46 Parkinson’s patients with dementia (92%) with at least one of the behavioral and mental disorders or more. The functional ability of Parkinson’s patients with dementia according to the Barthel scale is 42,00 ± 29,71. Quality of life in Parkinson’s patients with dementia according to PDQ-39 is 49,50 ± 31,52. The prevalence of depression - anxiety - stress according to the DASS21 scale of primary caregivers for Parkinson’s patients with dementia is 67%, 70%, and 37%, respectively. The mean PDQ-carer score of primary caregivers was 74,44 ± 33,72.
Conclusion: The caregiver burden for Parkinson’s patients was increased in Parkinson’s patients with dementia.